
Class BSffi O 

Book W ? ^ 

Copyright N?._ . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




H. E. WAITERS 



THE BIBLE 

OF 

SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

A SAFE GUIDE FOR MAN 



CONTAINING ARGUMENTS ON THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. THE IMMORTALITY OF 

THE SOUL, AND THE REASONABLENESS 

OF ETERNAL PUNISHMENT 



BY 

H. E. WATTERS, A. M. 

(graduate student brown university) 
President Hall-Moody Institute 



MARTIN, TENNESSEE 

1908 






1 UBHAR Y of CCNia 
i wo Copies KttttycitJ 

MAY 7 1908 



| COPY »T 



Copyrighted, 1908 
BY H. E. WATTERS. 



PREFACE. 

The faith of the human soul constantly craves sight. 
We are not content to say, "I believe" ; we must say, 
"I know." The faith that clings to an unseen support 
must either grow stronger or weaker, day by day. It 
is to strengthen the faith of man in the unfailing 
foundation and source of the Bible that this little vol- 
ume is given to the public. If it shall enable some 
fainting soul to feel the eternal Rock of Ages under 
his feet, or cause his faith to rise in triumph so that 
he may shout with Paul: "I know in whom I have 
believed," it will not go forth in vain. 

Witnesses are shockingly in the habit of saying upon 
the witness stand: "I don't know, as I didn't see," 
erroneously believing that they must see in order to 
know. Perhaps they little dream that most of the 
knowledge they possess was acquired through other 
sources than that of sight. Neither is vision the surest 
source of knowledge, for it is easily imposed upon. 
Nor are we dependent upon the five senses for all of 
our knowledge. How many things do we know that 
we have never seen, heard, tasted, smelt nor felt ; yet 
we know them quite as well ! Do you have to possess 
some physical knowledge of the center of the earth to 
know that it exists? Do you have to see or feel all 
the straight sticks of the world to know that there are 
none with only one end? Do you have to come into 
physical contact with God to know that he exists, or 
see Him write the Bible to know that He did it? He 
said: "Be still and know that I am God," and I be- 
lieve it is possible to do so. He said: "All scripture 
is given by inspiration of God," and I believe it is 

3 



4 PREFACE 

possible for us to know that it could have been done 
by no other. If we are willing to follow the same 
course of reasoning and investigation that we employ 
in every day affairs ; if we are willing to accept the 
same logical conclusions, then there is no fact in na- 
ture or human history more easily and more certainly 
established than that God is, and that the Bible is His 
word. The trouble is the Evil One, in his effort to 
cheat us out of our souls, refuses to allow us to fol- 
low such processes or accept such conclusions. They 
are all right for business, science and history, but 
when it comes to theology they are all wrong. I 
join the issue fairly and say that the same process of 
investigation that establishes the facts of Caesar's life 
and character will establish that of Jesus; that the 
same course of reasoning that proves that the sun is 
a fiery globe will also prove that God is love ; that the 
same logic that makes us to know that an idiot or 
ignoramus did not write Shakespeare's works makes 
us know that man did not write the Bible. 

The following discourse on the Bible is an enlarge- 
ment of a sermon that the author has preached on 
several occasions and that has been requested for pub- 
lication. This is our apology for publishing it, and 
also for the style's being that of an oration rather 
than simple narrative. It goes to the public with the 
prayer that the Holy Spirit may attend it, to give it 
power to fully convince every reader of the reliability 
of God's word, and of the importance of heeding its 
warnings and of living by its precepts. 

H. E. Waiters. 

Martin, Tenn. y Feb. 2, iqo8. 




THE BIBLE A SAFE GUIDE FOR MAN. 



Patrick Henry began his great speech before the 
Continental Congress by saying: "There is but one 
lamp to guide my feet. It is the lamp of experience. " 
^ears after, as the shadow of death gathered over 
him, he [called for the Bible, and, as he pressed it to 
his bosom, he said : "Blessed Book ! the greatest of all 
books, which I have had no time to read, and now it 
is too late/' If Patrick Henry had found time to read 
Ihe Bible, he would have found another lamp to guide 
his feet, for in Psalm 119:105 we read: "Thy Word 
is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path." 

Except by revelation, we do not know the beginning 
nor the end of man. We only see him as he races be- 
tween two eternities ; as he runs from the cradle to 
the grave. He can make this journey but once. He 
Can never retrace his steps. The crooked path behind 
him he cannot straighten, and the future that lies be- 
fore him he cannot see ; therefore he needs a lamp to 
guide his feet, a light to shine along his path. 

It is reasonable to believe that God, who created 
man and made the world for him, would also teach 
him how to live in it. And if He created a heaven 
for his eternal happiness and a hell for his eternal 
punishment, we must reasonably expect somewhere 
to find a signboard, written by His hand, pointing the 

5 



6 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

way to the one and the way from the other. Such a 
signboard the Bible [claims to be, and such it has ever 
proved to be. 

The Bible is a safe guide for man. No matter how 
complex the by-ways of temptations may become, the 
Bible indicates the right way through them. No mat- 
ter how dark the clouds of discouragements or sor- 
rows may gather, the Bible throws a bright lining 
upon them. Doubts may raise dark mists and fogs, 
but the beams from this lighthouse penetrate them. 
Storms of disaster may break in fury upon his bark, 
but the light from the Bible guides him to the harbor. 
The journey may be long, prolonged even beyond the 
century point, but no life is so long that God's word 
may not be to the end of it a "light unto his path, a 
lamp unto his feet." 

The experience of the human race warrants man's 
faith in this light. Evil men fear and hate it. In all 
ages they have tried to destroy it. But good men love 
and enjoy it. The better they become, the more they 
love its teachings. Wise men without it have stum- 
bled; fools with it have led exemplary lives. Those 
who ignore it or reject it go astray and fall; those 
who have accepted it have had the light of life. The 
foolish and the ignorant have scoffed at it; while the 
wisest and most learned have gazed upon it with in- 
creasing wonder and admiration. 

As a lighthouse the Bible does not reveal all the 
glories of heaven, but it lights up a little of the coast 
and shows us how to make the harbor. It does not 
show us all the rocks of the barrier reef, but it makes 



THE GREATNESS OF A BOOK 7 

plain the way where the rocks are not, and there I 
would run my ship. 

THE GREATNESS OF A BOOK. 

Man has never made anything greater or more won- 
derful than a book. To erect a pile of stones in the 
form of a pyramid to be gazed upon for centuries is 
great, but to write a book to be read after four thou- 
sand years is greater. To communicate across the 
seas without wires is wonderful, but to transmit 
thought across the ages is more wonderful. To direct 
a hidden force like electricity and to store it up in 
jars and batteries for future use is remarkable, but to 
direct the mind and store its products upon the printed 
page for the use of thousands of unborn generations 
is astonishing. 

A great book is truly man's greatest work, but 
where is the book that may be compared with the 
Bible? Suppose I had read you a passage from 
Homer, from Shakespeare, or from Darwin. It might 
have tickled your ear, and might have entertained you 
for a while, but when I open the Bible and read, your 
thirsty soul drinks as the dog-chased deer at the cool 
clear brook. 

THE BIBLE COMPARED WITH OTHER BOOKS. 

Let us look at the Bible for a while just as a mere 
book and compare it with other books that we know 
men have made. Men have written poetry, and many 
books of poetry are really great. Homer perhaps 
reached the highest summit of human poetic genius. 



8 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

But how tame are his lines compared with those of 
David ! He sang of the wrath of men and the fury of 
heathen gods. David sang of the omnipotent Jehovah. 

One of Homer's loftiest strains runs thus: 
"Hear me! thou God of the Silver Bow, 

Who hast protected Chrysa and divine Chilla, 

And powerfully rulest Tenedas, 

Sminthian! If ever I have decked for thee a beautiful 
temple, 

Or if ever I have consumed for thee fat thighs of bulls or 
goats 

Accomplish for me this my desire, 

That Danai may atone for my tears by thy arrows/ ' 

"Thus he spoke praying, and shining Apollo heard him. 

And he went down from the heights of Olympus with an 
angry heart, 

Having his bow and round covered quiver on his shoulder. 

And the arrows rattled on the shoulders of the angry god. 

And his going was like the night. 

Then seating himself afar off from the ships, he shot a dart 

And dreadful was the twang of the silver bow." 
Compare with this Psalm 18:6-15 (Rev. Ver.) : 
''In my distress I called upon Jehovah, 

And cried unto my God: 

He heard my voice out of his temple, 

And my cry before him came into his ears, 

Then the earth shook and trembled; 

The foundations also of the mountains quaked 

And were shaken, because he was wroth. 

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, 

And fire out of his mouth devoured: 

Coals were kindled by it. 

He bowed the heavens also, and came down; 

And thick darkness was under his feet. 

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; 

Yea, he soared upon the wings of the wind. 



THE BIBLE COMPARED WITH OTHER BOOKS 9 

He made darkness his hiding place, his pavilion round about 

him, 
Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 
At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed, 
Hailstones and coals of fire. 
Jehovah also thundered in the heavens, 
And the Most High uttered his voice, 
Hailstones and coals of fire. 

And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; 
Yea, lightnings manifold, and discomfited them. 
Then the channels of waters appeared, 
And the foundations of the world were laid bare, 
At thy rebuke, Jehovah, 
At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils. M 
The greatest literary genius the Roman civilization 
produced was Vergil, and one of his best passages is 
as follows: 

"A race by me detested sails the Tuscan seas, 
Transplanting Ilium and its conquered gods to Italy. 
Strike force into the winds, overset and sink the ships 
Or drive them different ways and strew the ocean with car- 
casses. 
I have twice seven lovely nymphs, the fairest of whom, 
Deiopeia, I will join in wedlock fine, 
And assign to be your own forever 

That with you she may spend all her years for this service 
And make you father of an offspring beautiful. " 
Compare with this the following passage from the 
Bible : 

"Whither shall I go from thy spirit? 
Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there, 
If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. 
If I take the wings of the morning, 
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, 
Even there shall thy hand lead me, 



10 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

And thy right hand shall hold me. 

If I say surely the darkness shall cover me, 

Even the night shall be light about me. 

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; 

But the night shineth as the day. 

The darkness and the light are both alike to thee. " 

—Psalm 139:7-12. 

Shakespeare is beyond all doubt the greatest Eng- 
lish poet. He is at his best in describing mercy in 
'The Merchant of Venice" : 

''The quality of mercy is not strained, 

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 

Upon the place beneath; it is twice blest; 

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes; 

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 

The throned monarch better than his crown; 

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 

The attribute to awe and majesty, 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; 

But mercy is above this sceptred sway; 

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings, 

It is an attribute to God himself; 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's 

When mercy seasons justice.' ' 
But compare this with Paul's description of love, 

remembering that it is prose while the other is poetry : 
"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but 
Lave not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging 
cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all 
mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to 
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if 
I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body 
to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love 
euffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth 
not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
seeketh not its own,, is not provoked, taketh not account of 



THE BIBLE COMPARED WITH OTHER BOOKS II 

evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the 
truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, 
endureth all things. Love never faileth; but whether there be 
prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, 
they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done 
away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but 
when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall 
be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt 
as a child, I thought as a child; now that I am become a man, 
I have put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, 
darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then 
shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. But now 
abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of 
these is love."— 1 Cor. 13 (Kev. Ver.). 

Archbishop Fenelon of France, whom Lamartine 
calls "a flame lighted up by the Almighty to shed 
radiance upon an accomplished age," says: 

"No Greek or Latin poetry is comparable to the Psalms. 
The fiftieth Psalm, which begins, 'The mighty God, even the 
Lord, hath spoken and called the earth,' exceeds whatever 
human imagination hath produced. Neither Homer nor any 
other poet equals Isaiah in describing the majesty of God, in 
whose presence empires are as grains of sand and the whole 
universe as a tent, which today is set up, and removed tomor- 
row. Sometimes, as when he paints the charms of peace, 
Isaiah has the softness and sweetness of an eclogue; at others, 
he soars above mortal conceptions. But what is there in pro- 
fane antiquity comparable to the wailings of Jeremiah when 
he mourns over the calamities of his people? or to Nahuin 
when he foresees in spirit the downfall of Nineveh under the 
assault of an innumerable army? We almost behold the for- 
midable host and hear the arms and the chariots. Bead Daniel 
denouncing to Belshazzar the vengeance of God ready to fall 
upon him; compare it with the most sublime passages of pagan 
antiquity: you find nothing comparable to it. n 



12 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

THE BIBLE AS HISTORY. 

There is no history like that of the Bible. Men have 
written histories without number. They have re- 
corded events great and small, but they attempt only 
to narrate them as man sees them, and none are per- 
fectly accurate throughout. Even in modern times 
man is unable to write a satisfactory history of the 
Civil War. The Bible records events as God sees 
them and has never yet been found incorrect in a sin- 
gle record. 

Would you study ancient history: read the Bible. 
The monuments and records of man may go back 
4,000 years, but the Bible carries us back 6,000 years 
and more. The monuments tell us what man was in 
his early civilization, but the Bible tells us w T hat and 
where he was when created. History may tell us 
something of man after he began to live in cities and 
to have national governments ; the Bible tells us of the 
first man, and of his generations to the day of Jesus. 
Men have tried to find flaws in the narrative. They 
said the flood never covered the earth. But the geolo- 
gist finds evidence of a great inundation, and picks 
up the shells of sea fish on the tops of mountains. 
They said Babylon and the tower of Babel never ex- 
isted ; but the ruins are uncovered today and men may 
look upon them: a great library is being unearthed 
there and the Bible is vindicated. They said the de- 
struction of Sodom and Gomorrah is a myth ; but the 
investigator finds the charred ruins of cities there, 
with brimstone lying in abundance. They said Joseph 
lived only in fiction ; but in upper Egypt they find 



THE BIBLE AS HISTORY 



13 



today the remains of great irrigation works bearing 
his name. These suggest the seven years of plenty. 
Records have been discovered showing that in 1700 
B. C. the Nile failed to overflow its banks for seven 
successive years. This suggests the years of famine. 
They said Pharoah never lived ; but his mummified body 
has been found, and even today you may look upon 
the very face of Israel's oppressor. They said it is a 
myth about Joshua's commanding the sun to stand 
still, but among most nations have been found records 
and traditions of an unusually long day. Thus it may 
be shown in every instance where skeptics have at- 
tacked the Bible record that the Old Book stands vin- 
dicated ; SO' that it stands alone as the most accurate 
and most wonderful history to be found. Dr. E. 
Fitch Burr says: 

"Our archaeological researches, among the strata of the 
earth, amid the ruins of buried cities, among the deeper ruins 
and roots of languages and traditions, have brought to light 
and demonstration the literal accuracy of many statements in 
the earlier Scripture where such accuracy was least to be ex- 
pected. Some of these statements are as follows: The human 
race began in one pair; it began near the Euphrates; the 
beginning was at a recent date; the primitive men were not 
savages; the original language was one; the original religion 
was monotheism; the lapse into polytheism and its congenial 
wickedness was very early; the early superiority of Egypt in 
arts and learning, its literature in the time of Moses, its labor- 
ious and oppressed serfs; the powerful Hittites in Syria, the 
forays into it of eastern princes, the sixty giant cities of 
Bashan — these and many more such things affirmed in the 
Scripture have been either abundantly verified or made prob- 
able by the progress of discovery. These verifications have 
been so many and signal, and in such unexpected quarters, as 



14 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

to wholly discredit and defy the higher criticism. A very 
signal instance of this defiance is the abundant literature found 
recently in various excavated places and dating from long 
before the time of Moses; for the higher critics have affirmed 
that Moses could not have written the Pentateuch because the 
art of writing was unknown in his day. They could swear to 
that — only they were not in the habit of swearing." 

If men like eloquence, let them read the speeches of 
Moses, of Job and his friends, of Peter, or of Paul. A 
noted United States judge once said: "I have heard 
many eloquent defences made in court, but the most 
masterly is Paul's defence before Agrippa." 

If you love fascinating stories, you will find them 
in the Bible. If you would read a story portraying 
woman's love and devotion, read the Book of Ruth. 
If you would know something of woman's self-sacri- 
fice, devotion to duty, and love for her people, read the 
story of Esther. 

THE BIBLE AND ASTRONOMY. 

If you would study science, you may find it in the 
Bible. 

Man has turned his telescope up to the skies for 
three hundred years. Really he has gazed upon the 
stars since God created vision. He has wondered 
what they are and what they mean, but wondered all 
in vain until recently. If he had turned his telescope 
upon God's word, long ago might he have learned 
that God gave the hint of gravitation which holds the 
stars in their places, when Job asked, 3000 years ago : 
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleaides, 
or loose the bands of Orion ?" He would also have 



THE BIBLE AND ASTRONOMY 1 5 

found a suggestion of that other modern discovery, 
that a star of the Pleaides is the center around which 
the sun and all the fixed stars seem to revolve. 

The Bible many times speaks of the stars being in- 
numerable, but how little did that mean to man until 
the telescope revealed them. Indeed the old astrono- 
mers had counted them and catalogued their number — 
one thousand and twenty-six — but before a powerful 
telescope even a small patch of the "Milky Way" be- 
comes an innumerable host. 

How many times does the Bible speak of the plural- 
ity of worlds? "He made the worlds'' (Heb. 1-2). 
"The worlds were framed" (Heb. 11 -3), but only after 
many centuries of patient investigation did man dis- 
cover the truth that there are other worlds besides this. 

The ancients looked upon the stars as holes in the 
walls of the heavens, and but a little distance above 
the mountains. But God said: "The heavens for 
height is unsearchable" (Prov. 25-5). 

Oh, that man had studied God's text book on as- 
tronomy first ! How much sooner would the wonder- 
ful truths of the heavens have been understood ! 

THE BIBLE AND GEOLOGY. 

For a long time it was the favorite custom of skep- 
tics to say that the Bible and geology do not agree, 
which in the main, until recently, has been true. They 
have assumed, therefore, that the Bible is untrue. They 
have very dogmatically and falsely assumed that "Sci- 
ence" is infallible, and that since the Bible does not 
always agree with their science it is false. Science is 



1 6 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

knowledge classified. In this sense, there is no true 
natural science, for only a small part of the phenom- 
ena of nature is fully understood, much less classified. 
Old classifications are constantly being overturned. So 
rapidly is this done that no text book in science can 
be up-to-date one year. A few weeks ago I received 
a text book in physics. It had been ofif the press but 
a few days. It is now only a few months old, but al- 
ready a discovery has been made which overturns a 
fundamental principle of physics, and the book needs 
revising. 

Some years ago Professor Simpson, the great scien- 
tist in Edinburgh University, ordered the librarian to 
remove to the cellar every scientific book over ten 
years old. A short time ago an eminent Frenchman 
collected 200 discarded theories in geology that had 
been held in France contrary to the Bible in one hun- 
dred years. They had all been overthrown, but the 
Bible still stood. 

All our natural science is based upon theories. A 
theory is a guess, therefore all natural science is at 
best only a guess. Yet some people are silly enough 
to believe that the Bible must be untrue unless it har- 
monizes with every "scientific" guess man may 
make. The Bible is God's text book on science ; then 
instead of trying to harmonize the Bible with science, 
harmonize science with the Bible. This would be in- 
finitely wiser, since in the past not one single theory 
of science contradictory to the Bible has stood the test, 
and every one that has stood the test of the fullest and 
longest investigation has agreed with the Bible. One 



THE BIBLE AND GEOLOGY \J 

eminent scientist recently boldly asserted that there is 
not one single fact of science or history upon which 
the scholarship of the world has fully agreed, but that 
agrees with the Bible. Sir John Herschel, in the front 
rank of scientists, said: "All human discoveries seem 
to be made for the purpose of more and more confirm- 
ing the record of the sacred Scriptures. The assertion 
that science disproves the Bible does not tally with the 
experience of honest men." 

To further illustrate we will mention a few exam- 
ples : Some said Moses was wrong when he recounted 
the order of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. 
Ingersoll wrote a book on the mistakes of Moses, but 
later geological research has confirmed Moses' ac- 
count, and the book turns now to be "The Mistakes of 
Ingersoll. " Who taught Moses the startling truths of 
the world's origin 3000 years before men of science 
discovered it in the rocks? 

Science has found that the earth has not always 
existed. They have traced it back to vapor and gas. 
But what order of intelligence and power created the 
vapors and the gases? The Bible answered long ago, 
for Moses says: "In the beginning God created the 
heavens and the earth." 

Scientists have fully demonstrated that the earth was 
once in a chaotic state, void of laws, without shape, 
waste and empty. But ages before science demon- 
strated it, God through his servant said: "The earth 
was without form and void." 

It is fully agreed by geologists that the earth was 
on£e covered with water, and that the first land ap- 



l8 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

peared about Hudson bay. This we may easily under- 
stand, but who taught Moses 3400 years ago to say: 
"Darkness was upon the face of the deep," and "the 
dry land appeared" ? 

Man, until recently, believed that the mountains were 
created with the earth, but God taught the Psalmist to 
say: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or 
ever thou hadst formed the dry land and the world, 
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God" 
(Ps. 90:2). 

How, until recently, could man understand, or with- 
out faith, believe: 

"Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment. 
The waters stood above the mountains, 
At thy rebuke they fled. 
At the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. 
The mountains go up, the valleys go down. 
Unto the place thou hast founded for them?'* 

(Ps. civ: 6-9.) 
Who taught Moses that vegetation was first upon 
the earth ; that the first forms of life were in the seas ; 
when all scientists were against him until the past cen- 
tury ? Who taught him that species are creations and 
not developments of lower species, when even in the 
nineteenth century such men as Darwin and Huxley 
still stood out against him, and he must wait for the 
dawn of the twentieth century to hear all the great 
scientists agree that "there is nothing in nature to 
prove that one species ever develops into another"? 

If you would know geology, study God's text book, 
the Bible. 



THE BIBLE AND PHILOSOPHY I9 

PHILOSOPHY. 

If you would read philosophy, where will you find 
a book giving a mere perfect philosophy of life? 
Where will you find moral precepts more perfect than 
those of Solomon and Jesus ? Can you find anywhere 
a more perfect epitome of man's duty to man and to 
God than in the ten commandments? Can you find 
in any other literature a precept to equal the golden 
rule ? Where will you find loftier spiritual sentiments 
than in the teachings of Jesus? Yea, after nearly 
twenty centuries of upward climbing, with the Bible 
as a text and the Holy Spirit as instructor, humanity 
has not yet reached the middle tableland, half-way 
toward the summit of the moral and spiritual teach- 
ings of the Sermon on the Mount. 

Then considered as a mere book, there is no book in 
all human literature to be compared with the Bible. 
Some books are great in one line of thought, but the 
Bible surpasses in all. 

THE RELIGION OF THE BIBLE COMPARED WITH OTHERS. 

The religious books of the Buddhists represent the 
greatest intellectual and spiritual effort of the ancient 
civilization of southern Asia. But how far from 
perfect is the religion of Buddha? There is no God 
to love, no higher power to whom the soul may pray. 
At the open grave it tells the broken-hearted mother 
that her child may soon become a cat or cow, and to 
the weeping wife it says the departed husband may 
become her horse. 

The books and doctrines of Confucius are the best 



20 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

that thirty or forty centuries of Chinese civilization 
could produce. But Confucionism can hardly be 
called a religion. There is no worship, save that of 
ancestors; no God, no future world, no hope; yet the 
unaided human intellect can do but little more. 

Mohammedanism presents the Koran, which no 
doubt represents the best intellectual effort of man at 
creating a religion. But we cannot say that man was 
entirely independent of the Bible, even in this, for 
Mahomet was perhaps a descendant of Abraham and 
incorporated in the Koran some of the Bible teach- 
ings. In fact, about all that is good in the Koran is 
from the Bible ; but how much of silly errors there are 
in it would require a book to tell. 

Egypt left stone monuments for all the years to 
come, but could produce only a foolish idolatry for 
religion — worshiping cattle, stones and the River Nile. 

Greece gave the world the greatest literature, and 
for simple intellectual effort has never been surpassed, 
if equalled, yet she could not invent a perfect religion. 
Even her gods were voluptuous and no better than her 
men. But that is the best the unaided human intellect 
;could do. 

Rome gave the world a code of laws and one of its 
most potent languages, but she could not evolve a per- 
fect religion. You could give a Roman no greater in- 
sult than to tell him he was like his god. 

In modern times skeptical philosophers have tried 
to create a good religion different from that of the 
Bible, but all have tried in vain. It cannot be done. 
The Bible is the only book that contains a perfect re- 



THE PERFECT MAN 



21 



ligion or even a perfect man. 

Where in history, song or story will you find a per- 
fect hero? Great soldiers have led their hosts, but 
they have waded to glory through blood. Great kings 
and statesmen have wielded the scepter of power, but 
their lives are stained with sin. Great teachers and 
preachers have wrought reformations, but their lives 
are full of errors, and crooked paths are behind them. 
Poets have sung of the glories of their favorites, but 
at the same time have lamented their shortcomings. 
Novelists have exhausted fertile imaginations to cre- 
ate a perfect hero, yet all their heroes sin. But where 
is the man in ancient or modern times that can find a 
fault in Jesus ? 

Go the the wilds of the American forest, hold up 
Jesus to the untutored Indian savage, and instinctively 
his heart cries out: "The Perfect Man!" Go to the 
yellow man of China or Japan, hold up Jesus to him, 
and, although of a different race from himself, his 
heart cleaves to Jesus as the perfect man, and he says : 
"I love Him." Go to the jungles of Africa, hold 
Jesus up before the Hottentot, and beneath his thick 
black skin his poor heart throbs as he finds in Him per- 
fection. The Malay, of still a different race, can love 
and serve Him; the white man of all degrees, in every 
land, in all the ages, can join in the universal verdict 
of all the races : "I find no fault in Him." 

Do you tell me Jesus never lived ; then I answer that 
man did not create the story of Jesus, for he has 
proved himself unable to imagine perfection. But no 
fact in history is better established than that Jesus 



22 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

lived. Then I say He is divine, for it is impossible 
for a man to live better than he can imagine. 

God has placed in every human heart a longing for 
the infinite, a soul-thirst and hunger that the world 
cannot satisfy, and that none of the religions of human 
origin :can satisfy ; but the religion of Jesus as revealed 
in the Bible fills to the fullest every heart it enters. 
There is no hungry heart that is not satisfied with the 
Bread of Life. Xo soul thirsts for righteousness that 
is not satisfied with a draft from the spiritual Rock 
of Ages. There are none so poor that may not have 
an inheritance incorruptible and surpassing under- 
standing ; nor anyone so rich that he may not need the 
exceeding riches of grace that are freely offered all 
who believe on Him. There are none so low that 
Jesus cannot lift them up, and none so high as to be 
above His power of helping. The long arms of Jesus 
can reach down and rescue the lowest criminal, and 
His blood can wash white the foulest stain. His love 
rebukes the haughty man and lifts the humble heart. 
Xo shadow 7 is so dark that His love will not brighten, 
no life so dreary He cannot cheer, no heart so wrung 
with anguish that He may not comfort. The wise and 
the ignorant, the lowly and the proud, the sinner and 
the saint, the rich and the poor, the living and the 
dying, all alike turn their eyes upon Jesus and are 
satisfied. No other book or source offers a religion 
that reaches all climes, races and classes; that satis- 
fies under all conditions ; that reaches the loftiest 
heights and the lowest depths of the needs, conditions 
and desires of the human soul. Since man has so sig- 



REASON AND GOD 23 

nally failed in all his efforts to create such a religion, 
he did not create this, nor invent the book that makes 
us wise concerning it. 

REASON AND GOD. 

The Bible is the only book that gives an original 
account of God and His love. Reason may prove His 
existence, but the Bible must reveal His character. 
Reason tells us every effect must have a cause. Yon- 
der are effects of intelligence greater than man's, and 
the Bible tells us that that intelligence is a living God. 
One of the properties of matter is inertia. Matter 
cannot move itself. Yet all matter is in motion. Mind 
alone can originate motion. It can move matter. The 
mind of man can move his hand, or his body; but 
these without the inner man are lifeless clay. This 
mind may set machines in motion and cause matter 
to assume various forms and positions, but yonder, 
see the grass growing, the birds singing, the trees 
climbing upward. Who caused this motion of mat- 
ter ? You answer : "The showers, the winds, the chem- 
ical elements, the warm sunshine/' But what caused 
the winds to blow, the rain to fall, the chemical ele- 
ments to move, the sun to shine ? Heat is but a form 
of motion. Matter was originally still. What mighty 
hand moved original chaos and flung the worlds into 
space at a fearful velocity? Whose terrible breath 
fanned the sun to a furnace and blew the comets blaz- 
ing through space ? When I look around me or turn 
my eyes into the heavens I see motion. The earth 
turns upon its axis, and wings its way around its end- 



24 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

less orbit. The sun with its revolving worlds goes 
through space at an unthinkable speed, around an un- 
speakably distant center. Mind has produced this mo- 
tion. The mind of man has not — could not have done 
it ; then instinctively I cry out : "The mind behind all, 
that works through all and in all is God ; there can be 
no other." And yonder, somewhere in space around 
which the heavens revolve, is His throne. Yes, reason 
teaches me that God is, but the Bible tells me that 
some day I shall step into His glorious presence. 
"With mine eyes I shall see God." "The small and 
the great shall stand before Him." 

REASON AND IMMORTALITY. 

Reason teaches man that the soul is immortal, but 
it does not — cannot — teach him where nor how he shall 
spend eternity. God has created no true appetite nor 
longing without the corresponding thing which satis- 
fies. He did not give the cattle appetite until He grew 
the grass to feed them; He did not give them thirst 
until the water flowed to quench it. So He did not 
plant in human hearts that intense and world-wide 
longing for another life until the gates of Paradise 
stood ajar to receive them. 

Design is seen everywhere. Everything in nature 
has some purpose. Nothing is made in vain. The 
oceans roll their wide expanse of waters to warm the 
winds and laden them with moisture. But this would 
amount to little upon the great continents did not the 
mountains lift their lofty heads to cool and condense 



REASON AND IMMORTALITY 



*5 



them. The rivers roll their waters to the seas, the 
forests lift their boughs, the sun shines, and the breezes 
blow for some purpose. These are all parts of one 
great design. 

A design presupposes a designer. A great plan with 
a great designer presupposes a great end. Great 
architects do not make great plans for toy houses. I 
carry you to a large city. We go to a magnificent 
building of marble and granite, costing $15,000,000. 
I tell you this was made for a stable. But you say: 
"No, that is impossible; men do not spend $15,000,000 
in erecting such buildings as this for horses. It was 
designed for something more noble/' Then I tell you 
it was built for the meeting place of the lawmakers of 
the greatest nation on earth, and you are satisfied. 
Then I carry you out and show you the mountains, 
the rivers, the trees, the flowers, the stars and the 
heavens, and tell you that these were designed for the 
birds, or beasts, and you say: "No; impossible; you 
must find some end more noble." Then I show you 
the coal beds, the iron deposits, the gold mines, the 
beasts of the fields, the hills and the skies, and show 
you that the great index finger of all nature points to 
man as the object and end of all of God's designs, and 
reason is satisfied. 

But wait; all nature seems happy, all but man. 
Everything in its natural element is contented. The 
fish in the water are satisfied. When the bird unmo- 
lested builds her nest among the trees she sings all 
the day. When the pastures are green and the cool 
brook flows near, the cattle are contented. But let 



26 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

conditions change. Remove any of these from their 
natural elements and they are unhappy. Now this is 
the state in which we find man. Of all God's creatures 
he alone is never perfectly satisfied, never completely 
happy. All nature was made for him and yet he does 
not fit anywhere. He is out of harmony, out of tune 
with all of his surroundings everywhere. Then, if the 
world was made for man (and none can doubt it) 
and he does not fit it, and this life ends all, what a stu- 
pendous failure God has made in all his work, for he 
fails totally w 7 ho fails in the end ! It is irrational and 
unthinkable to state that He, who has so perfectly 
planned man and the universe, should make such a 
stupendous failure in the end. God has not failed, and 
this life does not end all. "Man shall live again." 

Thus reason teaches us that the soul is immortal, 
but the Bible tells us where we shall spend eternity 
and how heaven may be gained. "Search the Scrip- 
tures for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and 
these are they which testify of me." 

REASON AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. 

Reason may teach us that there is, or ought to be, 
a place of punishment for the wicked, and it shows 
that it must be eternal. Justice demands an evening 
up which we do not see in this life. "Whatsoever a man 
sows that shall he also reap." Since justice is not done 
in this world, it must be done in the next. If there 
is punishment in the next world it is reasonable that it 
should continue forever. The State, when it hangs a 
man, inflicts eternal punishment, and we say it is right. 



REASON AND ETERNAL PUNISHMENT 2J 

Violate nature's laws, and you suffer forever. The 
innocent babe puts out its eyes, and they never return. 
Nature inflicts eternal punishment, therefore it is 
natural. 

Again it is well known that as the sinner gets 
older his heart gets harder. Few are converted after 
they are thirty years old, fewer still after fifty, only 
the rarest number after seventy, and perhaps none 
after one hundred. If a man surrounded by praying 
parents and friends, by the influence of the good, ap- 
pealed to by gospel invitations, wooed by the Holy 
Spirit and drawn by the love of God, will not choose 
life, but continue to harden his heart, how long must 
he live and how hard must his heart become before he 
will ever turn? How long must he live in hell, sep- 
arated from mother's prayers, beyond the sound of 
gospel appeals, away from the Holy Spirit, without 
one good influence to give a good impulse; but the 
companion of murderers, and liars, and thieves, and 
whoremongers, and devils; surrounded by every evil 
the imps of the infernal region can invent ; drifting 
further from God, further from good, further from 
heaven; getting harder of heart and deeper in sin; 
how long must he live, how deep in sin, how hard in 
heart must he become before he will eventually turn 
to God and live ? Punishment is and must be eternal. 
But the Bible is the only book that tells how we may 
please God and live. 

THE BIBLE IS FROM GOD 

History tells us Jesus lived and did miracles such as 
were never wrought by man. It tells us He was wick- 



28 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

edly crucified, but it remains for the Bible to tell us 
whence He came, why He lived and why He died. 
The Bible alone tells us: "By His stripes we are 
healed." 

No wonder Heine, the infidel German philosopher, 
exclaimed, after spending a day in reading the Bible : 
"What a book ! broad as the universe, deep as human 
experience, rooted in the abyss of creation and tower- 
ing up above the blue secrets of heaven ! Sunrise and 
sunset, promise and fulfillment — its destruction would 
be the ruin of human happiness, its extinction would 
be the epitaph of history !" 

When Columbus finally touched the mainland of 
South America at the mouth of the Orinoco river, they 
tasted the water and found it fresh. A sailor said: 
"We have found another island." "No," said Colum- 
bus, lifting his eyes over the river many miles wide ; 
"no river like this flows from an island. This river 
drains a mighty continent." And so when I read the 
Bible and feel its mighty current flow upon me, when 
I compare it with the books that men have written, I 
am made to exclaim: "If the Bible is not from God, 
no book is, and He has left humanity to grope in the 
dark alone, with no guide, no light and no hope." 

SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN PROVED BY PROPHECY. 

But the Bible is from God. This fact is clearly 
proved, first from prophecy. Man cannot know the 
future. He may, with some degree of success, fore- 
cast events in nature, but he cannot foretell events in 
human history. No one can say: "I know I will not 



PROVED BY PROPHECY 29 

die tomorrow." No one can say: "I know Chicago 
will burn next May." The curtain is closed on the 
future and man cannot see behind it. He cannot see 
one inch beyond his eyes. Yet we find events foretold 
with startling accuracy in the Bible. A large part of 
the Bible is prophetic. It predicts leading facts con- 
cerning nations, peoples and cities; not in vague, 
doubtful, general terms, but with wonderful particu- 
larity and definiteness, hundreds, even thousands of 
years before they occur. All the grand outlines of 
human history were written in the Bible more than 
two thousand years ago. Yet these prophecies are so 
accurate that they read like history instead of proph- 
ecy. Did we not know better we would say they were 
written after the events occurred. 

Read Isaiah's prophecy concerning Babylon: 
"Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chal- 
dees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and 
Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be 
dwelt in from generation to generation; neither shall the 
Arabian pitch his tent there; neither shall the shepherds make 
their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; 
and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls 
shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there, and the wild 
beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and 
dragons in their pleasant palaces ; and her time is near to come, 
and her days shall not be prolonged." — Is. 13:19-22. 

Strange, terrible ! How could a man look upon that 
great city of a million inhabitants, fifteen miles square, 
surrounded by walls three hundred feet high and 
ninety feet thick, prosperous beyond all in the world at 
that time, and say it should be destroyed and never be 
rebuilt ; that it should be a waste place ? How unlike 



30 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

any human probability ! But let the centuries roll by. 
Go today to the river Euphrates, go far down the river 
and upon its banks a guide points to some desolate 
ruins. "There," he says, "is Babylon." You see no 
dwellings, no cattle, no sheep, no Arab's tents — only a 
desolate, lonesome waste. But look, what is that com- 
ing out of the old cellars and caverns? Owls, bats, 
reptiles and doleful creatures, for God said, 2700 years 
ago, that these should be the only inhabitants. 

Some years ago an American investigator went to 
search the ruins. He employed an Arab chief and 
band to excavate for him. They contracted for one 
month, but as the first evening drew on the Arabs be- 
came restless, and before the sun went down they 
were packed for leaving. They could not be induced 
to spend the night within the limits of old Babylon. 
"Why?" They could not tell, but you will find the 
answer in the Bible : "Neither shall the Arabian pitch 
his tent there." Who but God lifted the :curtain and 
let Isaiah see the future? 

Read the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning Tyre, the 
great commercial city of the Mediterranean Sea. Once 
her streets were crowded with people from all lands, 
now she lies in ruins. Nearly six hundred years be- 
fore Christ, Ezekiel predicted with minute exactness 
its coming desolation : 

"Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I am against thee, 
Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as 
the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the 
walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers; I will also scrape 
her dust from her and make her like the top of a rock. It 
shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the 



PROVED BY PROPHECY 3 1 

sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God; and it shall 
become the spoil of nations. ... I will bring upon Tyrus 
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. . . . He shall slay with 
the sword thy daughters in the field; and he shall make a fort 
against thee, and cast a mount against thee. . . . They 
shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy walls, 
and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones 
and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water. . . . 
And I will make thee like the top of a rock; thou shalt be a 
place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more; for I 
the Lord have spoken it, saith the Lord God. , ' — Ezekiel xxvi : 
3-14. 

Years pass and we lift our eyes and see a great dust 
rising from the eastern desert. It is Nebuchadnezzar 
coming with his hosts to destroy Tyrus. For thirteen 
years his armies besiege it, but at last it is captured 
and "made as the top of a rock." The inhabitants re- 
moved to that part of the city which is built upon an 
island. But she was not to be secure, for hear Zacha- 
riah say: 

" Tyrus did build herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver 
as the dust, and find gold as the mire of the streets. Behold 
the Lord will cast her out, and He will smite her power in the 
sea, and she shall be devoured with fire. " — Zach. ix:3, 4. 

She was to be the "spoil of nations," so God brought 
Alexander, who took the ruins of the city on the main- 
land and cast her into the sea to build a causeway to 
the island city to destroy it and "burn it with fire." 

Today the traveler sailing along the coast of the 
Mediterranean sees ruins on the jcoast. "What is 
that?" he asks of a sailor. "The ruins of Tyre," is 
the reply. "What is that white I see?" asks the 
traveler. "Only the nets of fishermen spread out to dry," 



32 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

is the answer. How could men have so accurately 
foretold these things if God had not drawn the cur- 
tain ? The Bible is the only book that contains narra- 
tives like this. 

But hear God say : "I will make of Abraham a great 
nation. His seed shall be as numberless as the sand; 
he shall bless all nations." Today count his posterity, 
if you can, or measure the good, if possible, that his 
seed have brought to the world. God said they should 
be 'carried into bondage beyond the Euphrates, if they 
should forsake His laws. They forsook His law r s, and 
now listen as you hear their sad lament: 

"By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, 
Yea we wept, when we remembered Zion. 
Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our 

harps. 
For there they that led us captive required of us songs, 
And they that wasted us required of us mirth, 
Saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. 
How shall we sing Jehovah 's song in a foreign land ! ' • 

— Ps. 137:1-4. 

Now hear a prophecy concerning Egypt and Noph, 
a central province of Egypt afterwards called Mem- 
phis : 'Thus saith the Lord God : T will also destroy 
the idols and I will cause their images to cease out of 
Noph, and there shall be no more a prince of the land 
of Egypt/ " 

Dr. Gilbert S. Bailey says : 

"This prophecy was spoken five hundred and seventy-two 
years before the birth of Christ. It contains two distinct 
predictions — the destruction of idolatry in Noph, and the utter 
cessation of the Egyptian monarchy. What two events more 
unlikely could have been predicted? Of all the countries in 



PROVED BY PROPHECY 33 

the world, Egypt seemed to be the most polluted with idolatry. 
The people worshipped almost everything. They are said to 
have had thirty thousand different gods. But God said: 'I 
will destroy the idols, and cause their images to cease from 
Noph.' 

" Idolatry continued in Egypt for a thousand years after 
this prophecy was uttered, but it has since been destroyed by 
Mohammed and his followers. Though Mohammed was a false 
prophet, yet he taught one great truth — that there is but one 
God and that idolatry is sin. And when he had acquired 
sufficient power to propagate his religion by the sword he 
swept idolatry out of Noph as with the besom of destruction. 

"But what if this prophecy had been uttered concerning 
Eome? It would not be true of Kome, for images are wor- 
shipped there today. Images are now worshipped in most of 
the countries of Europe, Asia, and America. But they have 
ceased from Noph, as God said they should. 

"But the other part of this prophecy is wonderful. ' There 
shall be no more a prince of the land of Egypt.' "Wonderful 
declaration, indeed, and one that could not wait a thousand 
years for fulfillment. 'There shall be no more' — not even one 
more — prince of the land of Egypt. It must have a speedy 
and perpetual fulfillment. Yet what was more unlikely? 
Shall not one of Egypt's native princes ever again sit upon 
her throne? No more a prince of the land of Egypt. Had 
not her monarchs reigned in long succession? Had not one 
dynasty succeeded another in a long catalogue of illustrious 
names? Had not her rulers reared some of the most endur- 
ing monuments of human glory — the pyramids, which would 
challenge or baffle the skill of the best engineers of the present 
day to equal? And do you tell me there shall be no more a 
prince of the land of Egypt? 'No more a prince of the land 
of Egypt.' And what has been her history since? Thus for 
twenty-four centuries this prophecy has been fulfilled. Can 
you tell me another land in all the world that has had such a 
history that not one of its native princes has ruled the country 
in over two thousand years? How came these prophets to 



34 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

predict these events with such perfect exactness unless they 
were taught of God?" 

Listen to Jesus as He foretells, in the twenty-fourth 
chapter of Matthew, the destruction of Jerusalem, and 
then in seventy years see the Roman armies surround 
it and put 1,000,000 Jews to the sword. Hear Amos 
say : "I will sift the house of Israel among all nations." 
And who can say that the sifting process has not been 
going on for the past one thousand years? Hear the 
prophet say : "He shall be a hiss and a by-word among 
nations," and then hear your neighbor say that an- 
other is as "stingy as a Jew." Read the book of Dan- 
iel. Read the prophecies concerning the great king- 
doms of earth and then turn to your ancient history 
to find these prophecies fulfilled to the letter. Read 
his prophecy concerning the kingdom of heaven, its 
rise as a "stone cut out without hands," its growth, its 
1260 years in the wilderness, its crumbling of other 
kingdoms ; and then turn to the New Testament, and 
to subsequent Church history to find the story true. 
Read his dreadful description of the great dragon, 
and then find it singularly fulfilled in the Romish 
Church. Read the hundreds of prophecies concerning 
Christ and find them all strangely fulfilled in Him. 
Read the thousands of prophecies from Genesis to 
Revelation ; how nations should rise and fall, how cities 
should flourish and fade, how people should live and 
die, how calamities should befall, dire events happen 
and great occasions come. Read two thousand years 
of hfstory written two thousand years before it comes 
to pass, and tell me not that man wrote it. 



UNITY OF THE BIBLE 35 

THE UNITY AND PLAN OF THE BIBLE. 

Again, the divine origin of the Bible is clearly proved 
by its wonderful plan and unity. The architects and 
builders of the past twenty-five hundred years have 
spoken in unbounded terms of praise of the master 
mind that so planned and directed the erection of Solo- 
mon's temple that the timbers hewed in the mountains 
and the stone shaped in the quarries were fashioned 
so perfectly as to go to place "without sound of ham- 
mer, ax or tool of iron." Suppose you were to go to 
the forests of Canada and find men shaping timbers. 
You ask them what they are doing and they answer : 
"Hewing timber for some unknown purpose." Then 
go to the marble and granite quarries of New Hamp- 
shire and Vermont, and there find men hewing stone 
according to mysterious marks and directions. Go to 
Mexico and find men polishing the wonderful onyx; 
go to Italy and find them polishing the beautiful Parian 
marble ; go to the iron foundries and steel shops and 
find men there shaping peculiar forms of steel and 
iron ; then see the great trains and ships bringing these 
timbers, stone and steel into one spot, and watch them 
as they take their places in a stupendous structure of 
wondrous beauty. Then if I tell you that all this hap- 
pened by chance, that no master mind planned it, I 
insult your intelligence. 

But I will show you a more wonderful thing. Yon- 
der in the distant ages, when the human race was 
young and had not yet become skilled in the modern 
arts and sciences, are builders at work. In different 
lands; in Egypt, in the desolate wilderness of Paran, 



36 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

in Judea, beside the rivers of Babylon, in Greece, in 
Rome, upon the lonely Patmos, the hewers work and 
the separate stones are formed. And what a contrast 
in the character of the workmen, and under what vari- 
ous conditions they labor ! A mighty leader and law- 
giver writes upon a mountain; a poor old prophet in 
his tent; a king arrayed in purple, upon an ivory 
throne, writes in Jerusalem ; a servant at the court in 
Shushan ; a captive wailing in captivity, his tears min- 
gling with the waters of Babylon ; a fisherman, a law- 
yer, a taxgatherer, an exile on a lonely island ; a pris- 
oner in a dismal dungeon — these all, nearly fifty in 
number, labored upon unknown plans, in different lan- 
guages, unknown to each other, separated by hundreds 
of miles and a thousand years, preparing sixty-six books 
of different styles and character, but when brought to- 
gether they form one beautiful and perfect whole; not 
one book too much, not one book too few, not one 
statement out of harmony ; but all forming the faultless 
Bible. Who can say this happened by chance ? Where 
is the human mind that could have planned it or have 
managed the execution of the plans? How could 
these plans have been known to the writers and yet 
unknown to the world, or how could the authors have 
written their parts without plan or direction? The 
Bible did not come by chance. It was planned, but no 
human mind planned it ; therefore it is from God. Any 
other conclusion is impossible. 

THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE. 

Then what shall we say of the history of the Bible ? 



HISTORY OF THE BIBLE 2>7 

Has any other book ever undergone such long con- 
tinued, bitter and persistent persecution and not gone 
down into oblivion? Emperors have ordered its de- 
struction, mighty bonfires have been kindled with its 
leaves, and those who read it have been killed, but still 
the Bible lives. It has been ridiculed, scoffed at, bit- 
terly denounced and mercilessly criticised, but still it 
maintains its hold on the hearts of men. It has under- 
gone various translations by friend and foe, but its 
crystal truths sparkle still. The tooth of time slowly 
but surely devours the interest men have in other 
books. Where are the crowds that once gathered to 
hear Homer sing? or Vergil? Where are the crowds 
that gathered night after night to see Shakespeare 
played? Where are the millions that went wild over 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, or other works of fiction, poetry 
or prose? Scattered are they now in groups of one 
and two; but the Bible loses none of its charm from 
the passing years. Man has been able to create noth- 
ing that can defy time and resist its decaying influ- 
ences. The Bible does this, and therefore it is not of 
men. 

INCOMPREHENSIBLE BY MAN 

What one phonograph records another may repro- 
duce, so what one mind expresses another may under- 
stand. What one man writes another may compre- 
hend. No human mind has so far surpassed all others 
that the world cannot think his thoughts after him, 
and how much more impossible that more than forty 
such should live and write one book! Where is the 



38 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

book that man has written that the world has not un- 
derstood? But where is the man that can truly say: 
"I have mastered the Bible"? It requires only a few 
months, or years at most, for a man of ordinary in- 
telligence to completely master any book of science, 
history, mathematics or literature ; but how many years 
must a Gladstone, a Spurgeon, an Eaton, or a Moody 
study the Bible to learn all the truths in it? The flip- 
pant boy, who knows nothing of it, may say there is 
nothing in it; the blatant skeptic, who never reads it, 
may ridicule it and say it is the work of fanatics, but 
the master minds of earth, after fifty years of patient, 
prayerful study, find no fault in it; but love it more 
and more, and say the more they read it the more 
they realize they cannot fathom its depths, nor climb 
its heights. What man writes, man can understand. 
Man cannot fully understand the Bible, therefore man 
did not write it. 

THE SUPPORT OF WITNESSES AND HUMAN EXPERIENCE. 

It is possible to establish truth by evidence. When 
a certain amount of the right kind of evidence is pro- 
duced, the mind cannot resist the conviction of truth. 
In establishing truth before a jury, the character, abil- 
ity and number of witnesses must be considered. 

Perhaps the two most celebrated writers on evidence 
are Greenlief and Storkie. They are recognized au- 
thorities in any court. They say a good witness must 
have a good character, should have no motive for giv- 
ing false evidence, must have ability to comprehend 
the facts in the case, and a reputation for careful ob- 



INCOMPREHENSIBLE BY MAN. 39 

servation and accurate expression. One such witness 
will cause belief, and in the absence of strong oppos- 
ing evidence will establish the fact. The corroborat- 
ing testimony of several such cannot be overthrown. 
The Bible .claims to be the word of God. Its writers 
claim to have been moved by His inspiring power. 
The religion of the Bible purports to be from heaven, 
and Jesus is asserted to be the Son of God. To estab- 
lish any one of these claims is to establish the Bible. 
Fortunately they are susceptible of proof by legal tes- 
timony. In this connection we will establish but one, 
the claims of Jesus. There are many ways of proving 
that Jesus is divine, but let us introduce a few wit- 
nesses. He claimed to be divine and all of His life 
and work is based upon that hypothesis. If He did 
the wonderful things recorded of Him, He was more 
than human, which is to say divine. Did the blind see 
at His touch, did the deaf hear at His word and the 
lame walk at His command? Did the dead hear His 
voice, and the wind and waves obey Him? Did He 
die for His enemies, and rise again and go to heaven ? 
If so, He was God. But many witnesses testify that 
these things were done, and no contemporaneous 
writer denies it. The disciples bore the most positive 
testimony to their knowledge of these facts. They 
bore united testimony and proved their sincerity with 
their blood and lives. That they were good men their 
enemies have not doubted; that they were intelligent, 
even brainy men, cannot be questioned. All admit that 
they had ample opportunity to inform themselves, and, 
since they could have had no motive for misrepresenta- 



40 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

tion, they have all the qualifications of perfect witnesses 
and their evidence ;cannot be impeached and must stand 
before any tribunal. Let eleven good, honest, intelli- 
gent men testify even to death that they saw and 
heard certain things, and can any man doubt it, es- 
pecially when there is no evidence to the contrary? 
Would you risk your life with any two of these wit- 
nesses testifying that they saw you commit murder, if 
you have no direct evidence in your favor? But to 
the evidence of the eleven add that of all the other 
friends of Jesus, the Roman historians, Josephus, and 
other writers of the time, which, together with the fact 
that no writer of that date contradicts them, establishes 
the word and works of Jesus as but few things can be 
established by testimony. 

But put the witnesses upon the stand and let them 
speak. Call His enemies, if they know any evil in Him 
they will tell it. Let the Pharisees speak. They pro- 
fessed great righteousness and a keen perception of 
evil. They hated Him and will tell all the evil they 
know. Hear them: 'This man receiveth sinners"! 
Does not your heart rejoice? Then He receives us. 

Put Pilate on the stand. Pilate, you sat in judg- 
ment upon Jesus; you heard the evidence; you Con- 
demned Him to death. Now, in the light of the evi- 
dence, give the world your verdict. Hear him, all ye 
who would condemn the Son of God, as he says: "I 
find no fault in Him." 

Let the thieves speak. Perhaps among the criminal 
classes they have heard something against Him. But 
they say : "This man hath done nothing amiss." 



INCOMPREHENSIBLE BY MAN 41 

Put the centurion who crucified Him upon the stand 
and hear him say: 'Truly this was the Son of God." 

Judas, we know that there is nothing of a public 
nature against Jesus, but you know His secret life. 
You were with Him as a friend day and night. You 
are condemned for betraying Him, now justify your- 
self before the world by exposing Him. But Judas 
says : "I have betrayed innocent blood." 

Imps of the infernal region, you know what man 
cannot know. You are enemies of Jesus. You have 
destroyed all of His influence you could. What have 
you to say against Jesus to justify your course? Hear 
them :cry out: "Jesus, thou Son of the Most High 
God." 

Now, since no enemy can give evidence against 
Jesus, let his friends testify, that we know assuredly 
who He was. 

Matthew, Mark and Luke, what do you say of Him ? 
And with one accord they say He was the Son of 
God. Thomas, you were not so credulous as the other 
disciples. You required full evidence, and I rejoice 
that you did. Now, after feeling the nailprints in His 
hands and thrusting your hand into His side, what do 
you say? Thomas embraces the Master and says: 
"My Lord and my God." Peter, you once denied 
Him ; now, after His resurrection, and after you have 
had time to reflect, what do you say of Jesus? Hear 
him before a mighty multitude: "God hath raised up 
Jesus and made Him both Lord and Christ." 

John, the beloved, you got a little closer to Jesus 
than the other disciples. You understood, perhaps 



42 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

better than any other, His inner life. The heavens 
opened for you. You heard the music of Paradise and 
the voices of the saints and the angels. You saw what 
has been, what now is and what is to be. Was Jesus 
known in heaven ? Is there any record of Him there ? 
And John, fresh from the courts of glory, answers: 
"I saw Him as a lamb slain from before the foundation 
of the world. I saw Him sitting at the right hand of 
the Father, clothed with honor and power." 

Angels, ye ministering spirits of glory, is Jesus 
known to you ? Hear them on that memorable night, 
as their white wings cleaved the sky, and their heavenly 
voices sang : "Unto you is born this day in the city of 
David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Glory to 
God in the highest, and on the earth peace, good-will 
toward men." 

Omnipotent Jehovah, Jesus claimed to be thy Son. 
Speak that the inhabitants of the earth may know, is 
Jesus known to Thee ? Hear His voice as it thunders 
from heaven on two occasions: "This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." 

Jesus promised to be with His believers unto the 
end. He promised to give them peace, joy and the 
Holy Spirit. Is He true? Is He able to keep His 
word? Have His promises been fulfilled? Let His 
sainted followers answer. Hear Paul and Silas sing 
in the prison at midnight. Receive the blood sealed 
testimony of one hundred million martyrs. Hear the 
shout of a billion new-born souls. Go ask mother, 
whose face is wreathed with the joys of a thousand 
blessings from trusting Jesus, and then never doubt 



WHAT THE BIBLE HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD 43 

His power again. Aye, go gather the witnesses to- 
gether. Bring the prophets, the saints and the mar- 
tyrs; gather the saints on the earth, and those who 
have died in the Lord. Let them gather by hundreds, 
by thousands, by millions and billions, until no eye 
can see the outer limits; then let the angels and the 
elders join in the mighty shout of testimony before 
the throne: "Halleluiah, glory and honor and power 
be unto God and the Lamb forever and ever, amen." 
Then surely, if it is possible to establish anything 
by testimony, we have established the fact that Jesus 
is the Son of God, and that He is a true witness. He 
testified to the truth and authority of the Old Testa- 
ment. He also sent Paul to preach to the Gentiles and 
inspired him to write the epistles. In these he says : 
"All scripture is given by the inspiration of God." 
Thus we establish the divine origin of the Bible by tes- 
timony. 

WHAT THE BIBLE HAS DONE FOR THE WORLD. 

We might show that the Bible is no ordinary book 
by briefly mentioning a few things it has done for the 
world. "By their fruits shall ye know them. ,, As an 
advancing summer moves steadily and resistlessly 
northward over the seas and over the continents, caus- 
ing the flowers to bloom where the snows had lain, 
causing the birds to sing where the winds had moaned, 
causing the leaves to wave where the ice had hung; 
so has it been with the influence of the Bible. Through 
the ages, as the knowledge of this old book has slowly 
spread among the nations, it has caused hope to spring 



44 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

up where despair had been, love to take the place of 
hatred, and life to become lord of death. Liberty has 
followed in its wake; fetters fall from the wrists, and 
shackles from the ankles wherever this old book is 
preached. It has reached down a strong arm to woman 
and lifted her up from man's footstool and placed her 
by his side. It has dispelled the dark clouds of ig- 
norance and caused the light of civilization to beam 
upon mankind. Wherever the Bible is read it makes 
men better, wiser and happier. It gives a new mean- 
ing to life that makes it worth living. It lifts humanity 
from barbarism to enlightenment, from paganism to 
Christianity, from death in sin to life in Christ. No 
other book has ever moved the world as this book. The 
influence for good of all other books together are not 
to be compared with that of the Bible. 

THE BIBLE'S FIRM HOLD UPON THE WORLD. 

Sometimes as we read the destructive criticism of 
the higher critics, we tremble from fear that they will 
destroy the dear old book. A traveler once said: "I 
was crossing the Rocky mountains, and as I ap- 
proached the base of a mountain one day I saw a man 
with a long lever under the rocky foot-ledge. 'What 
are you doing there?' I asked. 'O, I am trying to 
turn this mountain over,' said he. I could not help 
saying in an undertone: 'You are surely the biggest 
fool in all the world.' But on the following day as I 
descended the mountain on the other side, I saw a man 
with his shoulder against a rock jutting out from the 
side of the mountain. He was sweating freely and 

LOFC. 



THE BIBLE S FIRM HOLD UPON THE WORLD 45 

greatly excited. 'Come and help me, please/ said he; 
'hel{> me hold this mountain, for a man on the other 
side has a pole against it and I am afraid he will turn 
it over/ Then I said, 'He is a bigger fool than the 
other.' " Yonder in Chicago and elsewhere are critics 
and infidels with their levers against the Bible. 
They may prise and criticize, but they will never over- 
turn nor destroy man's faith in it. The guns of infi- 
delity in all the ages have been turned upon this our 
rock and fortress, but not one stone is gone nor one 
bright mark effaced. The waves of life's ocean, lashed 
to fury by all the powers of darkness, have beat for 
thousands of years against the base of this our light- 
house, but their billows have thundered in vain. The 
light still throws its beams as far, and lights the way 
as brightly as before ; and makes a rainbow of hope to 
dance in the spray of the angry waves. 

Let the criticism :come ! It only serves to reveal the 
strength of our strong tower. Let the waves roll on ; 
they only wash away the dust of superstition that has 
accumulated in the passing years; and then, as the 
rain upon the sands reveals the shining gold, so these 
waves of criticism and persecution make the gems of 
God's truth to blaze the brighter. This is God's book. 
His power is behind it, and how futile must be the 
efforts of him who would destroy it. Let Satan blow 
his hardest blasts and fire his heaviest guns; let infi- 
delity and higher criticism raise their fiercest gales and 
in their fury rage around our fort; I love to feel its 
strength and know the eternal Rock of Ages is under 
my feet. 



46 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

More than a hundred years ago Voltaire, the great 
French infidel, said : "I will go through the forest of 
scriptures and gird every tree, and in one hundred 
years it will be an unread book." But the hundred 
years have passed, and the very house where Voltaire 
sat when he made the statement is now a Bible house, 
and the press that printed his words now prints the 
Bible that he said would not be read. 

George Eliot, the great novelist, said of a certain 
book that had just come from the press: "In fifty 
years that book will have destroyed the Bible." The 
fifty years have passed and that book is forgotten — 
all except George Eliot's remark — but the Bible still 
lives. 

Some years ago Bob Ingersoll said of a certain book 
he wrote: "In twenty years this will crumble the 
creeds, and men's faith in the Scriptures, and the Bible 
will be read no more." But the twenty years are gone, 
and Ingersoll is gone and almost forgotten, but the 
old book lives, and has a stronger hold upon the hearts 
of men than ever before. 

More Bibles were printed and sold last year than in 
any other year in the world's history. It has been 
printed in four hundred languages and carried into 
every land. In the past ten years more than one hun- 
dred million Bibles have been sold — more than of one 
hundred of the most popular novels. The Bible is the 
most popular book in the world today, and gets a 
deeper hold upon man with each succeeding year. 

"The Bible dying out," did you say? Did you ever 
stop to think what would have to occur before the 



THE BIBLE S FIRM HOLD UPON THE WORLD 47 

Bible might be said to have entirely died out? Go 
gather all the Bibles that have been printed. Gather 
them from city and farm. Go to the polar regions; 
pick up those that have dropped from the benumbed 
fingers of the Esquimo; go to the deserts of Africa 
and pick up those that have fallen from the perishing 
fingers of the Hottentot as he fell upon the burning 
sands ; gather them from all lands and all climes, bring 
them by car loads and ship loads; pile them in one 
mighty pyramid ; let fire consume them in a great vol- 
cano of flame, and let their black smoke settle as a 
pall over the world, but you have not destroyed the 
Bible. 

Go gather the millions of commentaries, sermons and 
religious books inspired by the Bible ; gather the daily 
papers, for it is said the Bible could be reproduced 
from these; gather all the good literature that has 
been written in the past two thousand years, for this 
owes much to the Bible, Shakespeare's work alone con- 
taining five hundred quotations from the Scriptures ; 
gather the infidel books, for they Contain quotations of 
Scripture; strip your libraries of every book dear to 
your heart; pile all these upon the great pyramid of 
flame, and let their smoke add to the pall and darkness 
over the world ; but still the Bible lives. 

Destroy your schools and Christian institutions ; 
dynamite your orphans' homes and asylums for the 
poor, sick and insane; tear from the statute books 
every law based upon the ten commandments, and roll 
the world and civilization back to the days of Nero, 
but you have not destroyed the Bible. 



48 THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 

Yonder upon the hills and valleys are :church spires 
pointing heavenward. These must be destroyed. The 
hymns of Zion must be sung no more, and the lullaby 
song that mother sang must be forgotten. All Chris- 
tians must die and generations must pass until their 
influence in heredity fades out; even the stones that 
mark their last resting place, containing comforting 
passages from God's word, must be destroyed and their 
dust given to the winds, and still upon the other side 
"the books will be opened" and the Bible will live. 
Yea, you may destroy the earth, destroy heaven, de- 
stroy the saints and angels, but until you break God's 
scepter and drag Him from His throne the Bible will 
live, for He has said: "Heaven and earth may pass 
away, but My word shall not pass away." 

This is the book that God has given us to be a "lamp 
unto our feet, a light unto our path." It teaches us 
how to live and tells us how to die. It comforts our 
hearts in the valley here, and gives us glorious pros- 
pects in the sky. Then, may our hearts not gladly 
join the Psalmist as he sings : 

"0 how I love the Law, 
It is my meditation all the day. 
Thou through thy commandments 
Hast made me wiser than mine enemies, 
For they are ever with me. 

I have more understanding than all my teachers, 
For thy testimonies are my meditations. 
I understand more than the ancients, 
Because I keep thy precepts. 
I have refrained my feet from every evil way, 
That I might keep thy word. 



THE BIBLE OF SUPERHUMAN ORIGIN 49 

I have not departed from thy judgments, 
For thou hast taught me. 
How sweet are thy words unto my taste; 
Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. 
Through thy precepts I get understanding; 
Therefore I hate every false way. 

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path." 

— Ps. 119:97-105. 



HALL-MOODY INSTITUTE 

MARTIN, TENN. 

The School for the Masses, Low Rates and Excellent Advan- 
tages, bringing an education within the reach of all. Nine 
well equipped departments: Academic, Collegiate, Theological, 
Commercial, Musical, Expressional, Telegraphy, Civil Service 
and Teacher's Training. All thoroughly equipped and sus- 
tained by a strong corps of teachers. Enrollment 1906-1907 was 
471. The year 1907-1908 opened with a 20 per cent, increase 
over the previous year. 

Literary departments: courses broad, thorough, and faculty 
strong. 

Theological department under the leadership of J. B. Moody, 
D.D., gives young preachers a thorough and practical training. 

Musical and Expressional departments strong and large. 

Commercial department fully equipped, in separate building, 
gives a thorough and practical training in all commercial 
branches, including bookkeeping, shorthand and typewriting. 
Not a side department, but a well equipped business college. . 

Telegraphic department: one of the completest and best tele- 
graph schools in the country. Located in a separate building. 
Fully equipped. In charge of an experienced telegraph operator. 
Graduates now occupying positions in many states. 

Teacher's College: the largest and best in the country. 168 
enrolled last year. Only 15 failed in examinations for County 
and State Certificates. Graduates teaching in 12 states. 

Situation: Martin is a quiet town of 3,000 people, with all 
modern city conveniences. Pure air and water. It is reputed 
the purest and most religious town of its size in the state. It is 
an ideal school town. 

Bates: complete board and room rent in boarding halls $8.50 
per month; in private homes everything furnished at $10 to $12 
per month. Tuition in Literary, Musical and Expressional de- 
partments, $3 to $4 per month. Life scholarships in Commercial 
and Telegraph departments, various prices, but low. Ministers 
and ministers ' children given half rates in literary departments. 
Tuition refunded for absence. 

Write for catalog. Address: 

H. E. WATTERS, President, or 

M. W. ROBINSON, Business Manager. 



•AY 7 1908 



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